Entourage corrupted? What do I do?

[irchamandy]

I chose about 1,000 emails in my deleted folder and erased them
permanently by clicking the trash icon. I got an alert that said
"Action could not be completed. Mail error." When I clicked the OK
button, the alert disappeared and then reappeared, over and over again.
I had to force quit Entourage.

When I rebooted Entourage, almost every action I tried (ie, sending an
email) caused the same error alert and the same result (it appearing
over and over after clicking the OK button each time). I tried
rebooting the computer and I tried running Disk Utility (it says
everything is fine) but nothing works.

I tried creating a new identity to replace my old one but Entourage
doesn't let me import all of my emails, etc. into the new identity from
the old one, as it does if you are upgrading from an old Entourage to a
new one.

So Entourage is essentially broken. If I was still running OS 9, I
would just trash my corrupted Entourage prefs file or run Norton and
everything would be fine. But I have no idea what to do to fix
whatever is corrupted and, of course, there is no Norton for OS X. How
do I get my Entourage working?

 

[Diane Ross]

I chose about 1,000 emails in my deleted folder and erased them
permanently by clicking the trash icon. I got an alert that said
"Action could not be completed. Mail error." When I clicked the OK
button, the alert disappeared and then reappeared, over and over again.
I had to force quit Entourage.

When I rebooted Entourage, almost every action I tried (ie, sending an
email) caused the same error alert and the same result (it appearing
over and over after clicking the OK button each time). I tried
rebooting the computer and I tried running Disk Utility (it says
everything is fine) but nothing works.

I tried creating a new identity to replace my old one but Entourage
doesn't let me import all of my emails, etc. into the new identity from
the old one, as it does if you are upgrading from an old Entourage to a
new one.

You can't import from the same version of Entourage. You can export as an
Entourage archive (.rge file) and that will import. Not all data is retained
though. You can try to export as an Entourage archive, but if Entourage data
is corrupted I doubt it will transfer.

So Entourage is essentially broken. If I was still running OS 9, I
would just trash my corrupted Entourage prefs file or run Norton and
everything would be fine. But I have no idea what to do to fix
whatever is corrupted and, of course, there is no Norton for OS X. How
do I get my Entourage working?

Do a rebuild of your database. Full details can be found here:

<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/database/rebuild.html>

1. Quit all Office applications (including Entourage and Notifications).
2. Entourage 2001 and Entourage X: Hold down the Option key and re-launch
the application.
In a few seconds, you'll be greeted with a dialogue box asking if you want
the "Typical Rebuild" or the "Advanced Rebuild." Choose "Typical."
Entourage 2004: Hold down the Option key and re-launch the application.
In a few seconds, you'll be greeted with the new Entourage 2004 Database
Utility.


Caution: Some of your data might be lost if you choose the Advanced Rebuild
option. You should use this option only if you have already performed a
typical rebuild and continue to experience problems starting Entourage or
storing data.

During the rebuild process, the old files are renamed in case for some
reason the rebuild was not successful. After you've rebuilt your database
and checked the application's performance, you can delete the old versions
from your hard drive. Do not throw away these files unless you are satisfied
with the rebuild.

Old files are named:

Entourage 2004: Old Database"

Entourage X: "Old Database Cache" and "Old Database"

Entourage 2001: "Old Database Cache", "Old Database", and "Old Messages." In
addition, Database (Rebuild) Cache is retained.

If this fails, and Entourage will still open there are other options on
saving data. We¹ll go into that after you try the rebuild.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>